Of the 557 cases, the department of health has found the final outcome of 70 confirmed cases of listeriosis.

“Of these 70 cases, 36 persons have perished,” said Motsoaledi.

The source of the outbreak is currently being investigated, but Motsoaledi said it’s believe that this particular outbreak is from a food source that is being consumed by both the rich and the poor, and the contamination points may well be farms and food processing plants.

Malibongwe Dayimani of Dispatch Live reports a King William’s Town dairy that supplied a number of schools in the area with fermented milk, or amasi, was last week ordered to close.

Innesfree Agriculture and Dairy was identified as a supplier of amasi to a number of schools in the area where over 1000 pupils from 12 schools fell sick after eating amasi and pap.

The dairy was told to shut after Buffalo City Metro’s health services found it to be in contravention of regulations relating to the sale of milk and dairy products which state that the selling of raw milk and raw sour milk for human consumption is prohibited.

In the compliance notice, which is in the Daily Dispatch’s possession, Innesfree was ordered to stop selling dairy products with immediate effect and dispose of any raw milk or raw sour milk.

Innesfree owner Sherene Fourie accused the provincial government of being on a “witch-hunt” and said she was being targeted unfairly.

Fourie said “most” of the schools where pupils fell ill were not on the list of schools supplied by her dairy.

Fourie said health inspectors were wrong to point fingers at her because schools and individual buyers fetched milk from her shop using their own containers. “Did they go to the schools to check if the containers were sterilised? Or whether the food they cook at school was prepared in a proper manner?”

Fourie said some schools bought milk from her and stored it in their own tanks and nobody knew if those tanks were sterilised.

There were hundreds of dairies in the province selling raw milk, she added. “I would like to know, am I the only one who is shut down or are they planning to shut down other businesses?”

Last week 1056 pupils from 11 schools were treated for diarrhoea in three provincial hospitals after eating sour milk and pap offered by the national school nutrition programme.

On Monday more than 150 pupils from Kwena Tshwena Primary School in Ridgefontein were rushed to hospital after crushed glass was alleged found in their food, eNCA reported.

According an unnamed staff member the children received food from the school’s feeding scheme and by the afternoon a group of pupils were sent to hospital after complaining of stomach cramps and vomiting.

The staffer told eNCA that by Monday evening over 150 pupils were admitted to hospital.

Thabo Mogoaneng, an uncle of one of the children, told the news channel that it was not the first time such an incident had occurred.

Mogoaneng claimed that the poisoning and crushed bottles found in food were a result of the ongoing tender war between food suppliers.

The latest incident is the third one reported in Limpopo in as many months.

But Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi says a preliminary report indicates that all three of the children had also eaten food from a non-feeding scheme source.

“From the feeding programme we provided yesterday, dough or bread was not part of the menu. It emerged that they ate cake, and we did not provide cake. Late last night a granny came forward to say she had provided the cake.” Police are now interrogating the woman.

The South African Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries estimated in 2012 that there were 2.033 million goats in the country.

Of these animals, less than 0.5% are slaughtered at registered abattoirs. Although informal and traditional slaughter of goats for home consumption is permitted under the South African Meat Safety Act 40 of 2000, the responsibility for ensuring that products are safe is left to the traditional or ritual slaughter practitioners. The objective of the present study was to assess whether preslaughter activities associated with traditional or ritual slaughter promote or reduce food-associated risks and to recommend mitigation strategies for potential food safety hazards.

Structured interviews were conducted with 105 selected respondents (in and around Tshwane, South Africa) who had been involved in traditional goat slaughter. Approximately 70% of goats slaughtered were obtained from sources that could be traced to ascertain the origin of the goats. None of the respondents were aware of the need for a health declaration for slaughter stock. Some slaughter practitioners (21%) perform prepurchase inspection of stock to ascertain their health status. However, this percentage is very small, and the approach is based on indigenous knowledge systems.

The majority of respondents (67.6%) travelled 1 to 11 km to obtain a goat for traditional slaughter. Although approximately 70% of slaughter goats were transported by vehicles, the vehicles used did not meet the legal standard. More than two-thirds of goats were tied to a tree while waiting to be slaughtered, and the rest were held in a kraal. The holding period ranged from 1 to 72 h, but more than 70% of the animals were slaughtered within 36 h.

This study revealed that traditional and ritual slaughter involves some preslaughter activities with potential to mitigate the risk of slaughtering animals that are not fit for human consumption. Such activities include prepurchase inspection, obtaining goats from known and traceable sources, and ensuring that animals have sufficient rest before slaughter. However, given the rudimentary nature of these activities, they may not offer adequate protection to consumers of such meat.

The lack of understanding of the importance of a obtaining a health declaration certificate and minimizing stress in animals waiting to be slaughtered should be addressed to minimize the potential for propagation of foodborne diseases. The Meat Safety Act 40 of 2000 should be enforced where it applies and should be reviewed to provide guidelines that would help mitigate human health risks associated with traditional slaughter of goats.

Assessment of food safety risks associated with preslaughter activities during the traditional slaughter of goats in Gauteng, South Africa

There’s a reason expired and recalled food is supposed to be dumped in a secure manner.

Associated Press reports cookies, candies, jams and juice destined for a dump instead went to Themba Mgodla as payment for loading a truck. Only some of the goods he planned to sell in his squatter camp turned out to be a decade old, sickening more than 100 people.

Desperate for work, Mgodla said he had gone to a factory food shop seeking employment. A driver there was supposed to take the food items to a dump, but offered to let Mgodla have the load in exchange for helping put it on a truck.

He planned to sell the food, not knowing that some of the expiration dates went as far back as 2000. Once he got to his squatter camp, some of his hungry neighbors snatched goods from him.